Eating Cellulose and Sweating Fuels -- The Next Biofuel Revolution?

This podcast appears to feature the two most common pie-in-the-sky biofuel technologies now funded by Big Oil, vulture capitalists and the US government. Joule company's secret organism that secretes ethanol (at supposedly $75/B) from CO2, sunlight and saltwater sounds like an algae, which requires very expansive and expensive controlled bioreactors. Verenium company's conversion of cellulose to ethanol is also very difficult and will likely achieve their 10% market target only because the US is mandating, regardless of cost, that most ethanol be made from it (although algae could also soon be added to the governments's list of favored feedstocks). US politicians are helping these investors create a bubble for the failure of renewable energy by distorting markets with these mandates, allowing utility monopolies to block farmers and other producers from simple and low-cost cogeneration of cellulose to electricity, and discouraging alternative crops with subsidies for conventional crops.

Actually, any ethanol at all has been the terror of Big Oil since the first cars. The largest oil company, Exxon would rather back an electric car than have anything to do with ethanol. They are aware that from biological syntheses, we have made rubber, plastics, fuels [bio diesel, bio gasoline, ethanol, methanol, butanol....] all of which are currently putting $ into the pockets of oil companies.

I also believe you make a common error in assuming that Oil has anything to do with electricity. Oil accounts for 1.6% of electricity generation, Natural Gas [which can be renewable or in pockets in the ground] and nuclear provide about 20% of electric generation each, and coal produces almost half our electricity. Abundant, cheap, dirty, coal.

Lastly, US politicians will do what they are paid to do, like lie about "Clean Coal Technology", when they know nothing of energy matters, and could care less. For the record, there is no clean coal. The best we can do is to used coal as a feedstock for other fuels. During the Carter Administration, there was a plant built in western North Dakota to produce natural gas from coal, but the other 35 planned plants around the nation never got built.

Politics? Economics. It was, and is, cheap and easy to burn coal to produce steam to turn generators.

Yes, all alternative energies are blocked because none of them can bring the lobbyists and political campaign advertising $$$$$ to the table.

The second largest reason for the political weakness of alternative energy?

Every person interested in any alternative energy goes out of their way to criticize every other form of alternative energy, using the propaganda and "Scientific Research" paid for by the monopolies.

Thank you for your contribution to the continuing growth of the American Petroleum Institute and it's member companies

Mike -- Joule says it is not algae. From what I've heard, most people think it's e.coli....

We definitely have to take a wait-and-see approach to the company's claims. Supposedly, they can create 20,000 gallons of ethanol from one acre of converters. That's a heck of a lot of fuel (assuming they can actually do it!) We need to be careful of RE sprawl, but this solution could potentially offer a less land-intensive way of producing fuels on brownfield sites.

I agree with David that people are too quick to criticize every other form of renewable energy. You seem to think that every technology covered on this site is the product of a big conspiracy or green-washing.

Quite often, this stuff is happening under the noses of the big players without them even knowing, taking them by surprise. And when they do decide to participate, I think that's a good thing. It seems to me that we need both the entrenched and new players all on board together, working toward a common solution.

David didn't understand what I was saying. I didn't say Big Oil necessarily wanted ethanol to succeed nor that Big Oil had anything to do with electricity. Moreover, he is the one helping the entrenched monopolies by supporting only renewable energies that are bound to fail. I'm disappointed how few Americans advocate for competition and freedom for all competitors. When government awards monopolies and picks winners and losers, when investors engage in influence peddling and hype (while witholding secrets), the only option for those looking on the outside becomes criticizing the favored technologies and companies to protect their own company, industry, consumers and country. If the corrupt American government would just open up US markets, I wouldn't waste my time on this web site.

Why is there so little focus on non-atmospheric gasification of RDF and wood waste with the resulting high BTU syngas reacting with non precious catalyst to give us over 100 gallons of diesel and methanol per metric ton of feed stock? This seems like a part of the energy solution to me. We have three hundred tons of wood waste a day being wasted, that could offer 17 MMGPY biodiesel, if anyone is interested. Gasifiers and steam reformers are labor intensive enough without bio reactors to operate.
Earthbilly